"A theme of my environmental coverage here and elsewhere is that most environmental problems are overestimated, partly because of the neo-religious fervor behind the Malthusianism-uber-alles methodology of environmentalists, and partly for the closely related reason that serial crises are the best means by which the political class gathers more power to itself. In the fullness of time we’ve come to recognize that environmental problems are not world-ending potential apocalyses, but normal problems that we manage as well or badly as other normal human problems like crime, education, health care, and so forth. We’ve noted here the collapse of the population bomb crisis, the resource scarcity crisis, and, just yesterday, the species extinction crisis."